First off, I’ll be the first to admit webOS’s shortcomings, like its limited app selection, and more importantly, the maddening lack of spec-busting, powerful modern hardware to run it on. However, I’m getting tired of articles and posts, like this one, that try to explain away various “multitasking” solutions with excuses that generally boil down to “what’s it matter, you’re only doing one thing at a time anyway, so our background/freeze solution is just as good as yours, and besides, all you really want is just to play music in the background while surfing, isn’t it?”.

Except that it isn’t. The best multitasking solution is the one that allows ME, the user, to multitask. Not just the OS. If the OS itself multitasks, that’s cool. But that’s not really helping me if I can’t juggle multiple tasks easily. The reason why webOS gets it, and other OSes don’t, is that in webOS it is trivially easy for me to do multiple things at once. For example, I can decide to tell Pandora that I really like what it’s playing for me while in the middle of typing an email. I can launch a web site, swipe back to Keyring, copy a password, and by the time I swipe back to the web site the page is loaded waiting for me to paste the password.

While on a road trip, I can put my phone on my car’s touchstone, and have it stream Pandora or play music on the way, while simultaneously giving me GPS turn-by-turn directions. And as if that isn’t enough, I can run Trapster simultaneously to help avoid police speed traps. I don’t even have to juggle back and forth, since I’m listening to the Navigation while looking at the Trapster map, and I don’t have to switch apps to control my music when I want to, because the music controls are right there in the notification bar. WebOS even knows when to lower the music volume so that it can tell me I’m approaching my exit. If I get a text message or email on the way, I instantly see who it’s from and what it says without even having to touch my phone, and yet it doesn’t intrude on what I’m currently running. It can notify me that I’m running late on my calendar appointment, and with ONE tap I can let coworkers know that I’m running a bit late. Without having to switch tasks.

There is simply no other smartphone platform that allows me, the user, to multitask nearly as efficiently as webOS does. They’re all finding ways for the OS to multitask, but they’re not quite as effective at helping the USER multitask. And that’s where webOS wins.

Palm’s wonderful WebOS operating system that powers the Pre and Pixi was recently updated to version 1.3.5, bringing the joys of SDL, OpenGL ES and hardware graphics acceleration.

I now have Evas running on my Palm Pre. Below is a demo video. For web OS developers who have been looking for an easy way to develop apps with great graphics effects, Evas and the rest of the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries are a great option. You can download the Expedite demo used in the video here and try it out on your own Palm Pre.

It’s hard to put into words just how great a pianist Oscar was. I could tell you he was quite possibly the greatest pianist of all time, but such words are trite at best. Perhaps I might, instead, quote the words of the LGF poster “zombie” …

In memory of Oscar Peterson, I dug out the only record I own with him playing on it — a compilation album of “The Greatest Jazz Pianists of All Time.” Even in that elite company, the people who put the album together chose to put Oscar Peterson’s track FIRST on side one, and instantly you can tell why — the guy was unbelievable right out the gate. I had forgotten how talented he was — kind of stunning on one hand, and on the other depressing for all the other would-be pianists out there, because one listen to Oscar Peterson and you know you will never, ever be as good as him, or anywhere close.

You know what, I’ll just let his fingers speak for themselves.

When you’re done, go search for some of his other work on Youtube, like this insanely fast version of the Cubano Chant, or a 1958 performance of A Gal In Gallico.

I’ve recently taken an affinity to Norvell Molex’s Gospel Jazz Podcast, a weekly eclectic mix of jazz tracks with a Christian theme. The musical variety is particularly excellent: the styles range from radio-ey smooth jazz to avant-garde and blues. Some of the tracks feature vocals, but most are purely instrumental; and there are some great covers of popular gospel songs – Ron Brown’s cover of Israel Houghton’s “Come In From The Outside” and the oft-played Carl Allen & Rodney Whitaker’s take on Bob Carlisle’s “We Fall Down” are two of my favorites. This week’s episode 107 features both of those tracks, as well as an excellent take on the traditional Christmas carol “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. Enjoy.